Water is the single most important thing you can drink during a hangover, but it’s not the whole picture. Alcohol suppresses a hormone that helps your kidneys retain water, so you lose far more fluid than you take in while drinking. Replacing that fluid, along with lost electrolytes and a bit of sugar, is the fastest path to feeling better. The good news: a few specific drinks can speed things along.
Why Hydration Alone Isn’t Enough
Plain water will start to rehydrate you, but your body needs sodium to actually hold onto that fluid. Without enough sodium, your kidneys flush out much of what you just drank. That’s why an oral rehydration drink or even a salty broth can work noticeably faster than water by itself.
Pedialyte-style rehydration solutions contain two to three times more electrolytes and about 25 to 50% less sugar than standard sports drinks. The lower sugar matters because your body works harder to digest sugary liquids, which slows fluid absorption and can upset a stomach that’s already fragile. Sports drinks like Gatorade will still help, but if nausea is part of your hangover, the extra sugar may make it worse.
If you don’t have any of these on hand, stirring a quarter teaspoon of salt into a glass of water with a squeeze of lemon gets you surprisingly close to the same effect.
Fruit Juice and the Fructose Effect
Fruit juice does something water and electrolyte drinks don’t: it supplies fructose, which your liver can use to break down alcohol faster. In controlled studies, fructose increased the average rate of alcohol metabolism by about 80%. One study found that when people consumed fructose after drinking, the estimated time to fully eliminate alcohol from the bloodstream dropped by 90 minutes.
Honey works through the same mechanism. In one experiment, honey given after alcohol increased elimination from the bloodstream by 38% and cut intoxication time by roughly a third. A glass of apple juice or a mug of warm water with a tablespoon of honey gives your liver something to work with while also providing quick energy for a body running on empty.
That said, large amounts of fruit juice on a completely empty, nauseated stomach can backfire. Sipping small amounts over time works better than chugging a full glass at once.
Ginger Tea for Nausea
If nausea is your worst symptom, ginger tea is one of the best options. The active compounds in fresh ginger speed up stomach emptying and help stabilize the digestive signals that trigger the urge to vomit. They also have anti-inflammatory properties, which matters because hangover symptoms are partly driven by inflammation.
Most research points to 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams of ginger per day, split into multiple doses, as effective for nausea relief. In practical terms, that’s about four cups of ginger tea over the course of a morning. You can make it by steeping a thumb-sized piece of sliced fresh ginger in hot water for five to ten minutes. Adding honey pulls double duty: it soothes the stomach and supplies fructose to help your liver process leftover alcohol.
Bone Broth and Soup
A cup of bone broth or miso soup delivers sodium, potassium, and water in a form that’s gentle on the stomach. The warmth can also ease nausea in a way cold drinks sometimes can’t. Broth is especially useful if you can’t face solid food yet, because it provides a small amount of calories and amino acids alongside the electrolytes your body is missing.
Coffee: Helpful but Complicated
Caffeine blocks receptors in the brain that contribute to the throbbing, pressure-like quality of a hangover headache. A cup of coffee can genuinely take the edge off that pain, especially if you’re a regular coffee drinker whose body expects caffeine in the morning.
The catch is that caffeine is also a mild diuretic, which can worsen dehydration if you’re not drinking water alongside it. And for some people, coffee on a sour, empty stomach amplifies nausea. The practical move: have one small cup of coffee after you’ve already had at least a glass or two of water or an electrolyte drink. Skip it entirely if your stomach is already in revolt.
Drinks That Won’t Help
“Hair of the dog,” or drinking more alcohol the next morning, is the most persistent hangover myth. It’s true that another drink can temporarily mask symptoms, but only because it delays the same metabolic process your body needs to finish. You’re not curing the hangover; you’re postponing it while adding more toxins for your liver to process. This trick actually works for alcohol withdrawal in people with alcohol dependence, which is a completely different condition from a standard hangover.
Sugary sodas and energy drinks are also poor choices. The high sugar content slows fluid absorption, the carbonation can aggravate nausea, and the caffeine load in energy drinks is often high enough to spike anxiety and heart rate when your body is already stressed.
What to Drink Before the Hangover Hits
The most effective hangover drink is the one you have while you’re still drinking. Matching every alcoholic drink with a full glass of water, at least 8 ounces, slows your pace and keeps dehydration from getting severe in the first place. It won’t prevent a hangover entirely if you drink heavily, but it dramatically reduces the dehydration component.
There’s also early evidence for a preventive supplement. Prickly pear cactus extract, taken about five hours before drinking in a clinical trial, significantly reduced nausea, dry mouth, and loss of appetite the next day. Volunteers who took the extract had 40% lower levels of C-reactive protein, an inflammatory marker, compared to those who took a placebo. It didn’t eliminate every symptom, but the overall hangover severity was measurably lower.
A compound called dihydromyricetin, found in the Japanese raisin tree, has also shown promise. Research from USC found it activates a cascade of liver enzymes that break down alcohol and its toxic byproducts more quickly, while also reducing fat buildup and inflammation in liver tissue. It’s available as a supplement, though optimal dosing for hangover prevention isn’t firmly established yet.
A Practical Morning-After Drink Order
If you wake up hungover and want to recover as fast as possible, sequence matters. Start with a full glass of water with a pinch of salt, or an electrolyte rehydration drink, to address the dehydration driving most of your symptoms. Follow that with ginger tea sweetened with honey if nausea is a problem. Once your stomach settles, a small glass of fruit juice or a cup of broth gives your body fructose and nutrients to work with. Save coffee for after you’ve rehydrated, and keep sipping water throughout the day. Most hangover symptoms resolve within 24 hours, and staying consistently hydrated is the single biggest factor in how quickly you get there.